Instead of trying to corral, pen, contain, chase, disenfranchise, muzzle, occasionally batter, and otherwise discourage the class war contagion that is Occupy Wall Street - a task akin to squeezing a hand full of dry sand in the afternoon sun on Jones Beach - why not simply walk away? And by walk away, I mean passively encourage the Occupiers as a small but interesting economic pilot program in New York's tiny but growing protest tourism industry.

Surely this idea should appeal to Gotham's Type A uber-capitalist and his harried police commissioner. After all, their strategy thus far has been roughly as effective as throwing up a few well-placed power plants in the path of Godzilla. Occupy seems here to stay, like so many variations on Ray's Famous Pizza .... or the Jets. The early spring weather has been great for the march. May Day is fast-approaching. It's a national election year. Economic inequality is very much on the agenda - heck, the Republicans are going ahead with their plan to nominate a guy who parked much of his Bain Capital fortune offshore in the Caymans. The slogans write themselves in the Year of Romney. And the Mayor's in the last half of his last term and looking toward the LaGuardiaesque "legacy" question on the streets of New York.

Further, Occupy's tactics have evolved - even as the movement remains stubbornly leaderless and vague in its messaging. Its Zuccotti Park period appears, in retrospect, to have served as one those entrepreneurial "incubator" programs we read so much about in the business pages - all seed capital, trying new models, angel investors, learning from failure and hot-housing ideas on the whiteboard of 24/7 occupation and NYPD over-reaction (if you'll forgive a metaphor stretched from roughly Peck Slip to Greenwich Place). The big May 1 rally - dubbed "Day Without the 99%" - will feature massive union involvement, call activists from the around the leftward side of the spectrum, and unveil a cool new feature set (as the geeks like to say): legality.

As The Journal's Jessica Firger reports: "In a nod toward the needs of its more mainstream allies, especially labor unions, Occupy organizers agreed to obtain a city permit for the march from Union Square to Battery Park. The permit was secured by Transport Workers Union Local 100, which represents city subway and bus workers."

The tactic is not without its inherent tension: Occupy has clearly gotten the attention of organized labor, which provided most of the turnout for two big marches last fall. Speaking at a forum Friday hosted by the Murphy Institute of CUNY and the Sidney Hillman Foundation (disclosure: I work with Hillman), Julie Greene, the deputy political director of the AFL-CIO, peppered her remarks with references to Occupy and talked about labor's traditional role in representing the 99 percent. She also signalled a shift in her union's strategy from supporting individual Democratic candidate to encouraging voter registration and ballot access. Yet the relationship between Occupy and organized labor remains somewhat arm's length - some Occupiers are calling for a classic "general strike," but labor leaders aren't going along, understanding that they'd probably lose the city's public (trying to get to work etc) in the process, in addition to violating laws against strikes that affect public services.

And Occupy is also resisting attempts by mainstream progressive leaders to try and unify a left-leaning base in support of direct action. The 99 Percent Spring is a coalition of progressive groups that includes MoveOn.org, Greenpeace, the Working Families Party, 350.org, and Campaign for America's Future, led by liberal notables like Rebuild the Dream founder Van Jones. Yet as The Nation's Allison Kilkenny reported earlier this month, many Occupiers are openly skeptical of the effort, seeing it as an extension of mainstream Democratic politics. "Occupy is a movement that tends to view both the Democrats and Republicans as being culpable for growing class inequality and the corporate takeover of America," wrote Kilkenny, who is one of a handful of must-read Occupy journalists

Nonetheless, the May 1 march promises to be large, based on the noise of level of Twitter-based planners and the word from union organizers. So here's what Mayor Bloomberg should do (I charge nothing for this golden advice, mind you).

1. Proclaim May 1 Occupy Wall Street Day in New York City.

2. Erect a viewing platform for the march in City Hall Park and hang there all afternoon, like a secular New York Archbishop on Lefty St. Patrick's Day. Extra credit for all the great hand-shaking photos with labor leaders. (Note to Speaker Christine Quinn: you'll want to get in on this action).

3. Assign the NYPD to secure the route, and flood the zone with community affairs officers and EMTs bearing free water bottles and energy bars for marchers.

4. Expand on the city's current lower Manhattan First Amendment Rights Area - seen here in this handy map - to comprise, well, all of lower Manhattan and rest of the five glorious boroughs as well.